Dingo encounter (posted Thursday evening, 9th March)

Hey, yesterday was International Women's Day.  I only realised part way through the day.  There was a Canadian woman in our group who'd never heard of it!

 

I got back from Fraser Island this afternoon.  We stayed in the Eurong Beach Resort on the east side of the island.  I shared a room (no 8 Surf Side) with two cousins from Vancouver, Canada - Betty and Paul. 

 

I woke up early yesterday morning and thought I'd go for a little stroll from the apartment to the beach - about 2 minutes walk.  Just as I reached the end of the paved path and emerged onto the sand a dingo lolloped out of the bush to my left, onto the path.  I stopped and the dingo stopped.  We stood about a metre apart and looked at each other.  I tried to remember what all the posters on the island say about how to act if encountering a dingo - but it was only 6.00 a.m and I've never been a morning person.  So I treated it like I would any dog.  I stood tall, with my feet planted squarely apart and said 'Hello dingo,' in an authoritative tone.  (Fortunately the dingo didn't answer - this would have been worrying.)  The dingo stood slightly to the left of me, looking past me and sniffing the air.  We stood like this for perhaps 30 seconds maybe longer, then the dingo carried on his (or her) way, bounding off into a pond on the right hand side of the path and jumping through the water, chasing something, like dogs do.

 

I told Paul about it when I got back to the room.  'What did you do?' he asked.  I said that fortunately I'd never been afraid of dogs.  He looked at me a little askance and said, 'But this is a wild dog...'  'I know,' I said,  'But the principle is the same isn't it; you make it clear that you're not afraid, that you're not an underdog.'

 

I bought a dingo cuddly toy before I left the island this morning - for Becki of course.

---

Win a BlackBerry device from O2 with Yahoo!. Enter now.